The #OneMillionPads program provides menstrual hygiene education and Saathi biodegradable pads to more than a thousand women in rural Jharkhand. In May, our impact assessment partner, 4th Wheel, completed a baseline study of the three villages that will be the epicenter of #OneMillionPads. The study had a number of important findings, the most significant of which are:

Most women can access sanitary pads (81.90%) but half do so with great difficulty because the main market is at least a half-days journey(41.03%)

Burial is the most common disposal method of used menstrual absorbents (47.63%) followed by disposal in landfill (30.39%)

An overwhelming majority of women wash their sanitary pads before disposal because they believe menstrual blood is impure (79.44%)

The effect of menstruation on job attendance (65.81%) is significant but it is less acute on school attendance (30.90%). Women report that the absence of toilets in schools and workplaces, largely agricultural fields or construction sites, makes it difficult to change menstrual absorbents.